Where does the word brunch come from, and when did Australian-style brunch reach London?

Guy Beringer proposed brunch in an 1895 essay in Hunter's Weekly, and Punch reported the British coinage soon after. The Australian-style version reached London more than a century later: Shelagh Ryan co-founded Lantana in Fitzrovia in 2008, and Caravan followed in 2009.

Which London brunch cafés open early or stay open late?

The Cat & Cucumber on Tower Bridge Road and Angel Inn on St John Street open at 06:30 on weekdays, and ScandiKitchen in Victoria opens at 07:30. Later in the day, Fuwa Fuwa on Dean Street in Soho serves until 22:30 daily, and Casa Tua near King's Cross until 22:00.

Brunch in London: Antipodean Cafés and Classic Caffs

Q: How much is a set breakfast at the Regency Café in London?

As of October 2026, the Regency Café on Regency Street in Pimlico charges £9.99 for its set breakfast: one egg, two rashers of bacon, a sausage, beans or tomatoes, toast and tea or coffee. The art deco café opened in 1946, and its own site gives its hours as Monday to Saturday 07:00–15:30.

Brunch is a British coinage. Guy Beringer proposed it in an 1895 essay, "Brunch: A Plea", in Hunter's Weekly, as a late-morning alternative to the heavy Sunday dinner, starting with tea or coffee.¹ The 1896 supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary cited Punch, which called it a Sunday meal for "Saturday-night carousers".¹

The modern London version came from Australia and New Zealand. Shelagh Ryan co-founded Lantana in Fitzrovia in 2008 to bring the Australian café culture she missed to London, and Caravan, an Antipodean-inspired all-day kitchen, followed in 2009.² Her publisher bills Lantana as London's first truly Australian café; it was Time Out's Best Café in 2010.³

Local tip: To beat the 11:00 brunch rush, start early at the Regency Café, which opens at 07:00 Monday to Saturday.⁴⁷

Where these cafés are: South Bank, Borough & Bermondsey (5), Bethnal Green & Mile End (4), King's Cross (3), Spitalfields & Whitechapel (3), Chelsea, South Kensington & Knightsbridge (3), Soho & Fitzrovia (3), Rotherhithe & South Bermondsey (3), Camden, Primrose Hill & Kentish Town (3), Westminster, Victoria & Pimlico (3), Elephant & Castle & Walworth (3), Islington & Angel (2), The City (2), Shoreditch & Hoxton (2), Peckham & Camberwell (2), Marylebone (2), Covent Garden & Holborn (2), St John's Wood, Maida Vale & Kilburn (1), Mayfair & St James's (1).

At a glance

47Cafés listed

27With opening hours

06:30Earliest opening

23:00Latest closing

Opens earliest: Angel Inn, from 06:30 (Mon–Fri 06:30–16:00 · Sat 06:30–15:00 · Sun 09:00–15:00).

Closes latest: Corner Cafe, until 23:00 (Mon 10:00–18:00 · Tue–Sat 10:00–23:00 · Sun 10:00–18:00).

Most listed streets: Roman Road (2), Old Kent Road (2), Mile End Road (2).

Most common features: outdoor seating (36%), vegetarian options (34%), bakery café (30%).

The Antipodean brunch plate

Smashed avocado on toast and the flat white are the dishes most tied to the Australian-style café, and south London groups such as Brickwood, which started on Clapham Common South Side, spread them across the city.⁴ In south London, brunch at these cafés typically runs from 11:00 to 15:00.⁴

Lantana DL78 at 78 Charlotte Street opens weekdays 08:00–18:00, and the Lantana Café in Camden Lock Place Monday to Saturday 08:30–17:30. Brunch cafés cluster most in South Bank, Borough & Bermondsey, followed by Bethnal Green & Mile End, where Dunk & Sip at 80 Roman Road and Mono London at 535 Roman Road both serve brunch.

The caff breakfast

The other London brunch is the caff, short for café: a small, privately owned place serving fry-ups and a full cooked breakfast all day.⁵ The Regency Café on Regency Street in Pimlico opened in 1946 in an art deco room that has appeared in Layer Cake, Brighton Rock and Rocketman, and Fevzi and Zafer Gungor reopened it in 2024 after a brief closure.⁶

As of October 2026, its set breakfast of one egg, two rashers of bacon, a sausage, beans or tomatoes, toast and tea or coffee costs £9.99, and the café's own site gives its hours as Monday to Saturday 07:00–15:30, closed on Sundays.⁷

Early breakfasts and late pancakes

Some brunch cafés open before office hours. The Cat & Cucumber at 182 Tower Bridge Road and Angel Inn at 420 St John Street open at 06:30 on weekdays, and Clean Hearts at 52 Commercial Road runs 07:00–19:00. In Victoria, ScandiKitchen at 38 Buckingham Palace Road opens at 07:30 on weekdays and 08:00 at weekends.

For brunch dishes after dark, Fuwa Fuwa at 57a Dean Street in Soho serves 11:00–22:30 daily, and Casa Tua at 106 Cromer Street, near King's Cross, stays open until 22:00 every night.

Weekend brunch hours in London

Weekend hours shift rather than shrink. Pimlico Fresh at 86 Wilton Road serves 07:30–15:00 on weekdays and 09:00–17:00 at weekends, Toi & Moi Café at 38 Berwick Street stays open until 19:30 on Saturdays and Sundays, and Half Cup on Judd Street opens an hour later at weekends, at 09:00. Sour Leaf Cafe on Westmoreland Road in Walworth opens Tuesday to Sunday, 08:00–16:00.

Brunch cafés in London

At a glance

Alia's

Angel Inn

Balance

Cafe Below

Casa Tua

Clean Hearts

Co.

Corner Cafe

Fuwa Fuwa Cafe

H's Cafe

Half Cup

Istanbul Cafe & Bistro

Lumi

Map Studio Café

Mayvn Cafe

Mona

Pimlico Fresh

Regency Cafe

ScandiKitchen Cafe & Shop - Victoria

Sour Leaf Cafe

South London Louie

The Cat & Cucumber

Toi & Moi Café

White Mulberries

De Vine

Mel's Cafe

Brunchies

Café Society

Cafe Wham

Crome London

England's Grace

Ergon Deli

Feya

Franx Continental Café

Frequency Coffee Aldgate

Mono London

The Antipodean brunch plate

The caff breakfast

Early breakfasts and late pancakes

Weekend brunch hours in London

Sources

Other ways to browse London

Specialty coffee

Outdoor seating

Wi-Fi

Bakery cafés

Open late

Brunch in London: questions

Where does the word brunch come from, and when did Australian-style brunch reach London?

How much is a set breakfast at the Regency Café in London?

Which London brunch cafés open early or stay open late?

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